From Drift to Shift: How Change Can Bring True Meaning and Happiness to Your Work and Life

FROM DRIFT TO SHIFT

Praise for

FROM DRIFT TO SHIFT

Miller nails it with how to change your work and personal life so that you find meaning, balance, and happiness.

—Peter O’Donnell, Investor, Private Equity

Jody is the Studs Terkel of our time.

—Kristen Johnson, NBC Television

"The stories in From Drift to Shift are like Ted Talks. You will be inspired to follow your own dreams and desires. There are no roadblocks."

—Ray Bourhis, Partner, Attorney

"You can easily follow the roadmap in From Drift to Shift to find your true place in the world. Miller lays it out, with amazing stories to support her years of professional experience."

—Christie Balcolm Oppliger, Transamerica Financial

No one knows how to get to the heart of someone’s story and help them see what matters better than Miller.

—Johnny Love Metheny, Entrepreneur

"The stories in From Drift to Shift probe the meanings and motivations that guide us and keep us going."

—Dalton Delan, PBS Television

If you want to find real happiness in your work, Jody is the best at showing you how.

—Allison Miller, Head of Human Resources, JMPG

Everyone should own a copy of this book. Whether you are a CEO or stay-at-home parent, this book will help you find your way in the world.

—Greg Curhan, Co-Founder & President, Merriman, Curhan Ford

The stories in this book get to the heart of work and life. You will be motivated to pursue what matters.

—Rick Berry, CEO

Inspiring examples of Jody connecting people and encouraging them to strive for more, leading to a life of peace and happiness.

—Larry Carpenter, M.D.

"If you haven’t shifted already, From Drift to Shift will help you move into the authentic life and right livelihood we all deserve. Get inspired by Jody and the stories she weaves together."

—Jennifer Chapin, Co-Founder, Stinson Brands

Jody Miller’s gracefully narrated compilation of true life stories reminds us all that our personal and joyful destiny is within our reach. We need only to shake off the ennui, if not outright fear, we’ve slowly embraced in our adult lives, and embrace the fact that happiness has been patiently waiting for us all along.

—Ann Hough, Audit Manager, California State University Chancellor’s Office

"Jody is an ace both on and off the court. The pieces in From Drift to Shift are nothing short of dynamic, inspiring storytelling that make you pause and seek out what is truly important in your own life. It’s not whether you win or lose but how you play the game…the game of life.

—Mandy Aguero, Recruiter

Jody’s stories give us the opportunity to take a step back and reflect on our own lives. There is always something to be grateful for; we can all be inspired to build a better life.

—Nathalie Tancrede, Executive Director of Artisan Business Network

Miller helps the reader discover America’s Cup tactician-like skills in sensing SHIFTS and exploiting them in everyday life.

—Jeff Heely, Agro Vision

"When life gives you lemons, sometimes you need help to make the lemonade. From Drift to Shift can provide the ingredients you need."

—Lee Bailey, Owner, LeeB Productions

ALSO BY JODY B. MILLER

HIRED! In 2017

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The Perfect Gift

To receive updates about Jody’s schedule, blog, and new book releases,

please connect at http://www.jodybmiller.com

http://www.fromdrifttoshift.com

FROM DRIFT TO

SHIFT

How Change Can Bring True

Meaning and Happiness

to Your Work and Life

JODY B. MILLER

NEW YORK

NASHVILLE • MELBOURNE • VANCOUVER

FROM DRIFT TO SHIFT

How Change Can Bring True Meaning and Happiness to Your Work and Life

© 2017 JODY B. MILLER

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other‚—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in New York, New York, by Morgan James Publishing. Morgan James is a trademark of Morgan James, LLC. www.MorganJamesPublishing.com

The Morgan James Speakers Group can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event visit The Morgan James Speakers Group at www.TheMorganJamesSpeakersGroup.com.

ISBN 978-1-68350-292-0 paperback

ISBN 978-1-68350-293-7 eBook

ISBN 978-1-68350-294-4 hardcover

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016917089

Cover Design by:

Megan Whitney

megan@creativeninjadesigns.com

Interior Design by:

Bonnie Bushman

The Whole Caboodle Graphic Design

In an effort to support local communities, raise awareness and funds, Morgan James Publishing donates a percentage of all book sales for the life of each book to Habitat for Humanity Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg.

Get involved today! Visit

www.MorganJamesBuilds.com

DEDICATION

To my Dad.

You have always been my biggest fan.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part One: Why Shift?

Chapter 1 Shift Happens

Chapter 2 Against All Odds

Chapter 3 Simplicity

Part Two: When To Shift

Chapter 4 Finding Normal

Chapter 5 Alleviate Suffering

Part Three: How To Shift

Chapter 6 Overcoming Obstacles

Chapter 7 Faith Beyond Reason

Chapter 8 Synchronicity

Part Four: After The Shift

Now What?

Appendix

Notes

Resources

The Balance Of Work And Play

How To Deal With The Complainers In Your Life

Advice I Thought I’d Never Give

Live Your Fairytale

Meet Someone New Every Day: A 6-Day Experiment

About The Author

FOREWORD

by Author and CEO, Brad Feld

CEO, Venture Capitalist, Entrepreneur, Bestselling Author, Marathoner

We all strive for success, but life often gets in the way and interferes with our grand plan. We go into turbo work mode to keep ourselves extra busy thinking we will find success. We follow the perfect plan someone else has laid out for us. But then it doesn’t work out. When that happens, we have to make a shift in order to move forward.

While we occasionally know what shift to make, more often it confronts us and smacks us in the forehead. Regardless of circumstance or timing, we have to embrace change in order to find true meaning and happiness in our lives.

I’ve had my share of successes and failures throughout my professional career and personal life. While success can feel great, the failures can feel emotionally crippling. Periods of success can also be unfulfilling, resulting in confusion, anxiety, or even depression.

Regardless of our profession or relentless pursuit of our dreams, we often face internal struggles. These struggles can be forced upon us by accidents, emotional setbacks, physical health, or circumstances outside our control. Yet, we suffer.

Could it be that in making our way through suffering, we find a way out the other side? A way that is new, fresh, and better than before? I’ve suffered many times as an adult and through each phase of suffering, have learned about myself and come out of my struggle with more optimism.

There come multiple points in life when we have to make a shift in order to find true happiness and purpose, regardless of what others think. Whether you are a CEO or a stay-at-home parent, the stories in FROM DRIFT to SHIFT will inspire you toward an optimism that comes from facing your demons, your challenges, and the roadblocks along your path. In FROM DRIFT to SHIFT, you will learn about inspirational people who have found their way through hard times and struggles, emphasizing a belief in other outcomes.

Jody and I met many years ago when she was an Investment Banker and I was a Managing Director at SOFTBANK Technology Ventures. We had media and technology backgrounds which gave us instant common ground. While we each became authors later in life, Jody went on to Executive Recruiting and Strategic Consulting and I continued on the investment path with my role at Foundry Group and Techstars.

I deeply enjoyed the stories in this book. I was amazed at how each person worked through their shift on a path to finding their own bliss. The people in FROM DRIFT to SHIFT have found passion, laid it all on the line, and came out on top in their lives. They have gained empathy and a sense of self that cannot be destroyed.

My wish for you is for happiness to be your path and for love be your guide. You will find both in FROM DRIFT to SHIFT.

—Brad Feld, Boulder, Colorado

About Brad

Brad has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of Techstars.

In addition to his investing efforts, Brad has been active with several non-profit organizations and currently is chair of the National Center for Women & Information Technology, co-chair of Startup Colorado, and on the board of Path Forward. Brad is a nationally-recognized speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship and writes the widely read blogs Feld Thoughts, Startup Revolution, and Ask the VC.

Brad holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Management Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Brad is also an avid art collector and long-distance runner. He has completed 23 marathons as part of his mission to finish a marathon in each of the 50 states.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The perspective offered in this book is for you, the reader, to experience your work and life in a way that gives you balance, meaning, and happiness on a daily basis. This counsel is supported by 30+ years of professional experience, combined with poignant examples of amazing people’s transformative stories.

The accurate and meaningful telling of these stories involves each person’s willingness to be thoughtful, reflective, honest, and open.

Putting these experiences together so that you, the reader, can follow a fluid path to self-discovery, takes more than a writer; it takes a varied and cohesive team.

I would like to give you a short description of the incredible people whose journeys are woven throughout this book. Some have drifted initially, yet all have experienced significant shifts in their lives and, through these shifts, have become who they are meant to be.

•Andy Wirth: President and CEO of Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows Ski Resorts, philanthropist, and extreme athlete.

•Jerry Colonna: CEO of Reboot, executive coach, venture capitalist, and enlightenment seeker.

•Sloan Walsh: Woman of endless faith, parent education teacher, and amazing mother of three.

•Manoj Chalam: Ph.D., Chemical Engineer, CEO, Hindu deity art collector, co-founder of Vivekodayam.org (a nonprofit organization focused on raising knowledge and wisdom), teacher of Hindu and Buddhist archetypes, and avid table tennis player.

•Serita and Reid Cox: Co-Founders and leaders of iFoster.org , collectors of unique cultural keepsakes, mountain adventurers, and the first to help kids who have been left behind.

•Darren Quinn: Talented, in-demand artist with paintings displayed on Television program sets and famous restaurants; water adventurer, sudden paraplegic, and friend to all.

•The Achuar People: Friendly, indigenous tribe living deep in the heart of the Amazon Rain Forest, believers in dreams, and lovers of Mother Earth.

•Emilee Garfield: Two-time cancer survivor, movement educator, and certified wellness coach.

Each of these individuals has overcome major struggles, doubts, and obstacles; and yet, through it all, has discovered why, when, and how to shift their lives to live each day with passion, meaning, and fullness. I am so grateful they were willing to share their inspirational stories, regardless of how humble they believe them to be. I thank them for being sources of incentive and inspiration to the many readers who will learn from them.

Brad Feld: Entrepreneur, investor, venture capitalist, bestselling author and marathon runner extraordinaire, who wrote the foreword to FROM DRIFT to SHIFT, has helped many entrepreneurs realize their place in the world through numerous start-ups and ventures. Now, he will help even more through his eloquent perspective and kind words in FROM DRIFT to SHIFT.

I am thankful to Terry Whalin, Acquisitions Editor at Morgan James Publishing, whom I first met at the San Francisco Writer’s Conference. He saw my vision and valued this book from the beginning, helping to shepherd it through the publishing house.

The whole team at Morgan James played an integral role in producing and distributing the important messages in this book, and I am grateful for their belief, commitment, and dedication to the entire process.

I give special thanks to Megan Malone, Managing Editor at Morgan James, who had just the right touch and timing.

Thank you to my conceptual and copy editors, who were tried and true with every technical and thematic element of this book.

Heartfelt thanks to my Publicist, for bringing (and continuing to bring) media visibility to FROM DRIFT to SHIFT, and sincere gratitude to everyone who provided quotes, insight, and feedback.

I am beholden to every bookstore that has ordered many copies of FROM DRIFT to SHIFT and to all platforms who carry it worldwide.

Thank you also to the many companies, organizations and institutions who have invited me to speak about FROM DRIFT to SHIFT to their employees, students, members and clients.

I also value and am grateful to leading publications such as The Huffington Post™ and LinkedIn Pulse™ that have enabled me to spread the messages in FROM DRIFT to SHIFT so that more readers can benefit.

Thank you to my personal network of friends, family and colleagues who have been there for me throughout the many iterations of this book, numerous meetings, conference calls, and demands on my time. I appreciate their patience, faith, and support as I navigated my way.

And to my inner circle of manuscript reviewers whose honest feedback and enthusiasm kept me going—thank you!

I offer my deepest thanks to you, the reader, for joining me on this quest and for considering the road maps offered in FROM DRIFT to SHIFT.

I encourage you today, tomorrow, next month, next year, and for the rest of your life to stay the course. Forge ahead, regardless of what is thrown in your way. Our work permeates our lives. You need the work you are meant to do and the life you are meant to lead to be in sync. This book shows you ways to do that through shifting your perspective, trusting your voice, and taking action.

My hope is that the strategies and stories in this book will assist you in your own life shift, so that you find true happiness in everything you do and in the person you were always meant to be.

Thank you.

INTRODUCTION

We all love stories. We’re born for them. Stories affirm who we are. We all want affirmations that our lives have meaning. And nothing does a greater affirmation than when we connect through stories.

—Andrew Stanton, writer of Toy Story, TED February 2012

Imagine that you were on your morning commute and you couldn’t wait to get to work. You didn’t even think of it as work, because you loved it so much.

Imagine you were in a relationship that you only dreamed of in fairytales, and you knew with certainty that it would last forever.

Some of us enjoy these experiences already, while others of us have to wake up and face reality. We’re just not there yet.

We all desire to be happy in our work and in our personal lives. Yet, according to a recent Gallup Poll, at least a third of us are not. Why is that?

We spend more than 30 percent of our lives doing something we hate, or we stay in relationships that make us miserable. We just drift along. This statistic bothers me so much. It just doesn’t resonate.

So I set out to discover why.

Why do we stay in professional and personal situations that we loathe?

•Is it a fear of risking the unknown?

•Is it a refusal to follow our hearts?

•Is it a need for security?

•Is it a lack of self-esteem?

We all want to be valued for who we are and what we contribute to the world, but when we don’t feel useful or worthy in work and life, we spiral downward.

How do we rise up from the pit of despair?

While being stuck can be a conundrum, we are equally perplexed by the people who have found true meaning in their work and in their personal lives—people who have found their authenticity, their truth, and are happy, regardless of money, title or power. We admire them.

How do they do it? Are they really that different from you and me? I don’t think so.

After more than 12 years as a professional Job/Life Coach and Executive Recruiter and after helping thousands of people just like you find true meaning in work and life, I believe I have discovered the roadmap that can get you there—to that place in your life where you are meant to be—so that you too can experience true happiness and fulfillment every day.

Everyone has a story to tell.

We are each born with a unique offering to contribute to the betterment of the world. Some stories stop in their tracks and never move forward. Other stories flow seamlessly (although those are rare from my perspective).

The most engaging stories are those that experience a shift somewhere along the way; a shift that gives them the strength, courage, and fortitude to move outside of comfort zones and into places of belonging. These stories overcome, they move upward and onward. They prevail.

These are the stories that motivate, inspire, and give us hope.

I carefully selected the stories in this book to demonstrate that you can overcome anything and achieve a sense of bliss in your own professional and personal life—just like the people you will read about.

In FROM DRIFT to SHIFT, you will get the information, insight, and inspiration that you need to find meaning, fulfillment, and happiness in your work and in your life. This is my promise to you.

I want you to be happy, in all things, every day of your life. This is what you deserve—it is your birthright.

When you were born, you had no hang-ups, no fears. All you had was curiosity. You were happy. Why wouldn’t you be? All you had to do was watch and absorb.

And then you acted. You acted with abandon, regardless of consequence.

But then something happened along the way that undid that perfect nature you were born with.

I want you to discover your direction so that you can find your happiness. I want you to discover what moves you and to identify the shift you may need to take in your own life in order to achieve success, happiness, and a joy that only comes from doing what you are meant to do and in being who you are truly meant to be.

Between you and me, I have a hunch that you may already know, deep down, what that is. But now it’s time to dig deep, see it clearly, and go for it. You only have to answer to you in the end. Isn’t it time you asked yourself the right questions that will help get you there?

In FROM DRIFT to SHIFT, you will learn how to ask yourself the right questions and to recognize the opportunity to pursue your true purpose both professionally and personally. When you do, you will find profound success, down to the core of your soul. It is achievable for you, me, and everyone.

FROM DRIFT to SHIFT encourages you to seek a life of meaning; to be curious about who you are and have the courage to hunt for the answers that will help you become the person you are meant to be. Do not let external forces pressure you into being anything less than spectacular.

FROM DRIFT to SHIFT helps you discover how you can make uniquely important contributions to the world.

FROM DRIFT to SHIFT challenges you:

•Why are you in your current job and not in the career of your dreams?

•Are you in the right relationship or are you settling your life away?

•Would you give up your current path to follow that itching voice in your head that says; Do what you love until you die?

The people in this book have asked themselves honest and heartfelt questions, and have mustered the courage to make changes so that they can finally live lives of true meaning and happiness. Some have suffered challenges, failures and loss, but they have ultimately triumphed